In many industries, dunnage is used to pack, support, and protect parts when transporting the parts. For example, in the automotive industry, manufacturers often ship their parts in large rectangular racks, with a number of parts supported within the rack by one or more dunnage strips.
Throughout the manufacturing chain, the parts may be loaded and unloaded from the racks as needed. The arrangement and number of parts per rack is often limited by how the parts may be loaded and unloaded from the racks, and normally not all of the available space is used. For example, conventional dunnage strips may have spaced apart slots and rely on gravity to hold the part within the slot, and may limit the packing density (e.g. number of parts that fit in a given rack). Furthermore, conventional assembly lines may use a robot to remove the parts from the rack, and the robot may not be able to properly locate each part within a rack when using conventional dunnage systems.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved apparatus, systems and methods for securing parts and for loading and unloading secured parts.